As discussed here, a growing number of jurists are following the lead of Judge Jed Rakoff in refusing to approve SEC settlements in which defendants “neither admit nor deny” the agency’s charges against them. Most recently, U.S. Senior District Judge John L. Kane (D. Colo.) rejected the SEC’s proposed settlement with Bridge Premium Finance and certain of its executives, saying he refused “to approve penalties against a defendant who remains defiantly mute as to the veracity of the allegations against him.”
